Colourringed gulls and wildlife in Belgium

Sunday, August 25, 2013

Last week, a short trip to the coast resulted in the reading of my first juvenile c-ringed Herring gull of tis year. When I saw the code I immediately recognised it as a bird R.-J. Buijs and Jeroen Nagtegaal ringed on July 2nd, when I went to Vlissingen to see them at work and help them with the catching and ringing of young gulls. Great to see one of them at the Belgian coast. Other nice rings were an adult from R.-J. Buijs, and a bird ringed by the North Thames Gull Group. There also was a juvenile Meditaerranean gull, but it was not ringed, and a nice big Grey seal swimming close to the beach.

Herring gull blue C.RAB (E. Stienen), Oostende.

Herring gull blue KP.AM (E. Stienen), this must be one of the most reported Belgian Herrings, I now saw it 28 times.

Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Last weekend I again visited the colonies of Zeebrugge and Oostende, with still many Herring and LBBG's present at both locations. Nearly all c-rings seen were blue ones from Belgium, but I managed to find 2 foreign birds as well: an adult French LBBG, and a juvenile Dutch bird from Roland-Jan Buijs, my first one of the year in Belgium. Let's hope more of them are on their way!

LBBG blue 0G (RJ Buijs, ringed in Belgium), Zeebrugge.

LBBG black-yellow 0.L (RJ Buijs), my first juvenile bird of the year in Belgium., Oostende.

LBBG red 168K (P. Dubois), Zeebrugge.

LBBG blue KH.AF (E. Stienen), Zeebrugge.

LBBG blue KY.AU (E. Stienen), Zeebrugge.

LBBG blue L.SAF (E. Stienen), Zeebrugge.

Herring gull blue MK.AU (E. Stienen), Oostende.

LBBG blue NYA.F (E. Stienen), Zeebrugge. Only seen once before, by Antonio Gutierrez in Spain.

Also in July, I visited (parts of) some breeding colonies in Zeebrugge and Oostende. The gulls breed in the harbours here, so access is not everywhere possible. Many c-ringed adult birds were seen, but in Zeebrugge the breeding season turns out to be quite bad, so not many chicks will be ringed. By now, the adults start to leave the colonies and the LBBG's will soon be found in Southern Europe.

LBBG orange EK47 (N. van Swelm), now in its 18th year!

LBBG black EL (R.J. Buijs), already back from the Netherlands?

LBBG blue D.FAY (E. Stienen).

LBBG blue GZA.N (E. Stienen) in its colony in Zeebrugge.

LBBG orange HN5T. (NTGG), nice to see a British-ringed bird too!

Herring gull blue KU.AM (E. Stienen), Zeebrugge. The gulls breed there between the rails of the trains.

Earlier this summer, I visited Le Portel in northern France, in order to read as many rings as possible. This meant almost no pictures were taken, but at the end of the day I managed to get the following totals:
- Mediterranean gull: 119 rings
- Herring gull: 8 rings
- Greater black-backed gull: 1 ring
- Black-headed gull: 1 metal ring
So 129 in total, not too bad :-)

It has bene a while since my last post, but there was a problem with adding pictures to this blog. It seems to be solved now, so I will put some updates very soon. First short post is of a very nice bird, Belgium's first Long-legged buzzard. It was present for 3 days at the beginning of July. Although it was a drive of more than 2.5 to get there, it certainly was worth the trip, what a beautiful bird! The Red kites and Black storks circling overhead were a nice bonus.
Next post will be about gulls :-)

Sunday, June 16, 2013

This week I recieved the ringing data of the British Oystercatcher I saw in Nieuwpoort this spring. It had been ringed in September 1996 in Suffolk as a bird of at least 2 years old. This means it is now at least 19 years old! I saw it mating with a Belgian-ringed bird, so surely it breeds somewhere near Nieuwpoort.